Life Makes Love Look Hard
by justanoutlaw
Summary: Grown up orphans who met by chance and fell in love. Now, together, they raise their own happy family.
1. Chapter 1

**A ship that loboselinaistrash and I developed. Just a modern AU with lots of fluff.**

**No triggers as of now, outside Rogers being a recovering alcoholic. There may be more in a few chapters as we delve into their past lives.**

Killian Rogers had been told all his life that he couldn't control the way the wind blew. That didn't stop him from trying, however.

He grew up in the foster system, where much of his life wasn't up to his control. After his mother died and his father abandoned him and Liam, they spent much of their life bouncing from one foster home to another, so he clung to what he could. He planned out his life, down to the last detail. He'd become a cop, help kids like his brother, who had sadly fallen down the wrong path. He was convinced he'd arrest every bad foster parent there ever was.

It all started with going to college, which he did with a scholarship when he was 18. It was there, when he began to realize that as much as he wanted to plan for things…he really couldn't. He formed a band with his roommate, David and they recruited two girls from the floor below them: Ruby and Mary Margaret or Snow as she preferred to be called. They rocked pretty much every location they could. And over the years Killian found himself falling…for all of them. Yet, he knew that was impossible. Four people couldn't be together.

Soon, everything began to unravel. He didn't get the internship that he wanted and he was really struggling with a class that he found to be useless towards his long term career. Who needed math anyway?

So, he lost himself in drinking and sleeping around. He went from one person to the next, often waking up in strange places that he didn't even remember going to. Eventually, David caught on. The two of them were sophomores by that point and living in a shared apartment with the girls. They sat him down and gave him an intervention. They didn't want to see him go down a bad path, to have all of his dreams destroyed.

It took some time, but eventually, he agreed to go to AA. There he began to clean his life up, little by little. One of the rules of AA was no relationships for the first year, to just focus on your sobriety. That was exactly what he did, with the help of his friends. They played less shows and focused on school. By their junior year, he was going back to the man that they knew and loved. Yet, there was still that small-yet strong-voice that told him he was being a fraud.

One last one night stand and he knew what he had to do. He sat his roommates down and told them the truth. Turns out…they felt the exact same way, but none of them knew how to go about it. Snow did what she did best and researched it. The most they knew about being in a relationship with more than one person was polygamy, but as it turns out…thee was a whole other term: polyamory. It meant that they could have multiple partners and still be together. They'd all be committed to each other and that was what mattered.

Once again, things were on track. They went on dates, they had sex in every room of their tiny little apartment, on every space imaginable. They professed their love for one another and swore, as soon as they graduated from college, they'd get married and start their lives together.

Then the wind changed.

There was a rapid knocking on their door 10 months after they had begun their relationship, just a week after they made their plans for post-graduation, which was coming up quickly. Killian opened the door to find a car seat there. Inside was the tiniest baby he had ever laid his eyes on, a diaper bag beside it. Looking in the hall, he tried to figure out who had just played Ding-Dong-Ditch: Baby Edition, but there was no one to be found.

He lifted the carrier and bag, taking it inside. The diaper bag contained a note, from Eloise. She had been the last person he had a one night stand with. According to her, this was his child and she just couldn't care for her anymore. Apparently, the little one wasn't named and Eloise wanted nothing to do with her. Ever again.

Killian didn't know what else to do but hold the baby and instantly, he fell in love with her. She had his eyes, not abnormal for a newborn to have blue eyes, but it was as if he knew. Eloise wasn't exactly the most trustworthy person, but the timing added up according to the birth certificate that plainly read "Baby Girl Gardner-Jones".

He knew he couldn't abandon her like his own father had. It took two seconds to name her Alice, after his mother, the one strong female presence he had in his life as a child. It took a few more minutes to realize that once his partners found out about Alice, they'd be on their own.

Snow came back from class around the same time that David and Ruby returned from the store. They found Killian rocking a fussy baby and all felt very confused.

"Babysitting?" Snow asked. Their building consisted of other college students, so it wasn't as if any of them had children. Perhaps it was his boss' or a professor'.

"No….she's um…she's mine."

David walked closer to him. "What?"

"My last one night stand, from before we made this official. Eloise."

"Eloise? You slept with Eloise Gardner?" The distaste fell from Ruby's mouth before she could help it.

David nudged her. "Not helping, Rubes."

"I'm sorry, I'm just…confused. Did you know she was pregnant?"

Killian shook his head. "She just left the baby in her car seat on my doorstep." He sighed, adjusting her in his arms. "I know you'll want us out, just give me a few days to find a place."

"Out?" Snow sat beside him. "Killian, we love you. We want to marry you, this doesn't change things."

"But she's…"

"Your daughter. Which makes her our daughter too."

David nodded and sat on the other side of him, while Ruby crouched down in front. "We can do this. We always planned on having kids and we knew that they wouldn't always be biologically one of ours. We said we'd love the same no matter what."

"That doesn't change just because she's not biologically mine or Snow's," Ruby said, smiling softly. "She's our daughter. All of ours. No matter what."

They got married as planned after graduation, though not in the way that most would. Killian married Ruby and Snow married David, it was the only legal way to go about it and make sure that everyone was protected. They did make one change though, since they were going into the marriage with so many different last names and didn't want to hyphenate or choose. They simply chose a new one, legally changing all of their last names to Charming, which was the name of their college band.

He and Ruby legally adopted Alice, changing her name to Alice Opal Charming-the Opal after Ruby's grandmother's name.

It was an unconventional family, but it was their family. And they wouldn't change a thing.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Prompted by loboselinaistrash: "You're my mom/dad. No DNA test could change that." Detective Red Snowing please!**_

_**Some Curious Snow goodness...**_

Alice never gave much thought to genetics. She knew growing up that her moms hadn't biologically given birth to her, but it never mattered to her. She never thought of Eloise or felt like something was missing, how could she? She had four amazing parents she loved along with four siblings that made her life completely full.

Then, when she was 13, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The doctor said that it could be genetic and since Killian didn't have it, they wondered if she could've inherited it from Eloise. While the woman had passed away a few years prior, her family was more than happy to surrender her medical records, which proved that she did. Alice hadn't gotten much from her, before it was just her wild blonde hair.

Now, a mental illness.

It was a hard adjustment. She was put on pills and started therapy. She didn't understand why it had to happen to her. She had a normal life, nothing traumatic had occurred. Yet, her brain was off balance. Alice liked puzzles and now she felt all jumbled up, like she was two puzzles in one box. If she even forgot to take her medication one day, she'd be the second puzzle. A person she didn't like.

Alice could see what it did to her parents and she hated that. They were constantly worried about her. They found her when she ran away in her manic episodes and they tried to make sure that she took her pills at the same time every day. She felt like a burden on all of them, even though they never once felt like that.

The pills gave her nightmares that scared the crap out of her and she found herself waking up in the middle of the night most times in a cold sweat. After one pretty terrifying one in particular, she snuck out of her room and headed down into the kitchen. She put just the exact right amount of ice cubes into her water and an even amount of marmalade on either side of her sandwich before sliding down into her chair.

"Alice?"

Her head snapped up and she found Snow coming inside, taking off her jacket.

"What are you doing up so late?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

"I went to go help Henry and Jacinda. Regina, Robin and Marian are out of town on their second honeymoon, so the kids are in over their heads with Lucy." She sat across from her at the table. "Now, spill Bunny, what's going on?"

Alice's lips nearly tugged up in a smile at her mom's nickname for her. Most kids would probably protect a nickname at this age, but she loved all of her parents'. "I had another nightmare because of those stupid pills."

"I'm sorry, baby." Snow took her hand. "We'll talk to Archie, maybe there's something he can do."

"He told me that it's normal, that it's just my mind processing everything."

"I wish there was something I could do to help."

Alice shrugged. "Change my genetics?"

Snow laughed a bit. "I wouldn't do that."

"You wouldn't?"

"I wouldn't change a single thing about you, Bunny. I wish I could've carried you inside of me, but it wouldn't change how much I love you. Would it change how you feel about me?"

Alice shook her head. "You're my mom. No DNA test could change that."

"Exactly. I know you think you're burdening us, but that's not true. Family means leaning on each other in the hard times, this is a hard time. And we'll get you through this, I promise."

"Thanks Mom." She paused. "Do you um…I know I'm 13…but do you think you could sleep in my bed tonight?"

"Of course. I'll keep all those bad dreams away." She leaned in, kissing her forehead.

n


End file.
